I just got some garage space for a full size vertical mill and have been trying to to find an American machine in good shape at a reasonable price but have so far come up empty handed (I'm in northern NJ, if you have one sell it to me!) so I'm trying to find a good import mill. Yesterday I found out that a guy 5 minutes from me is selling his Enco 100-1521 9x42 mill for $2500. It has power feed on one axis and an Enco branded DRO. It looks like the machine hasn't been used even once. The problems with it are that it is three phase (which I don't have in my shop, so I'd have to factor in another few hundred into the price for a converter) and there are some visible cracks in the paint on the head that look like some body putty used to cover up a bad casting is chipping off.
I've also been looking at the Grizzly G9901 which looks to use the exact same castings as the Enco. The main differences are that the machine would be brand new, a different color, and have a single phase motor. The Grizzly costs $3500 plus another $625 for the DRO not counting tax.
The work I do is mainly making one-off car parts from aluminum and steel like brackets and remachining cylinder heads and engine blocks.
Now for the hard questions:
- Is the used Enco a good deal? Should I be worried about the imperfection in the head?
- Is Grizzly or Enco the better company quality and service wise? Both machines look to use the same castings, will one be a cleaner, longer lasting, machine? Will I be able to get parts for both?
- I see a lot of people calling the imports "kit" machines because of all the work that needs to be done to get them "right". The Enco that I'm looking at feels like a nice machine (I felt all the controls and got to start the motor), is there something specific I should be looking for to be wrong with it?
- Grizzly also sells smaller mills of different construction like the G3616. Is one of these worth considering or should I stick with the "Bridgeport knock-off" design? How do they sell these mills for so much less than the G9901?
Whew! I think that's all for now. If someone can help me out just a little bit it would be greatly appreciated.